grapheme: a grapheme is the written representation
of a phoneme. A grapheme can consist of one, two, and rarely
three or four letters. The phoneme /k/ can be represented by the
graphemes C, K, or CK as in cat, kite, and duck.

Note: The Phonics Monsters resources have been divided so that they follow a more logical progression that allows for easier game play. They now come in several different versions:

Phonic
Monsters: An Explanation and Teaching Tips

The
phonic monsters are a fun way to learn and practice phoneme-grapheme
correspondences. The phonic monsters are a series of
cards that contain most of the phonemes in the English language and most
of the basic graphemes that are used to represents these phonemes.
Words are composed of heads, bellies, and tails that represent an initial consonant, a vowel sound and a final consonant sound respectively. The important point is that the words are being seperated into their constituent phonemes (sounds) so even though some cards have two letters like SH or EE, the cards only contain a single sound. The heads, tails and bellies can be exchanged with different heads, tails, and bellies to make new words. The concept is best explained
with illustrations.

The
graphics to the right show how the head of the monster 'leaf',
which is composed of three graphemes 'l', 'ea', and 'f', can be
combined with the belly and tail of the monster 'duck', which is
composed of three graphemes 'd', 'u', and 'ck', to form a new monster
called 'luck'.

There
are a number of activities and some really fun games that can be
played with these cards. The cards can be used to both introduce
and review the regular phoneme-grapheme correspondences. But it
is important to think about which monster parts you want to introduce
and when. Having all of the monsters out at once right at the start
can make it difficult for students to form words. The downloads
are below with some comments. Below the downloads are some links
to game suggestions for using these resources.

Games
and Activties

Change
It!

One
great activity to play is the game Phonics Change It! In
this phonics
game, students make words by removing either a head, body, or
tail of a monster.

Phonics
Rummy

In
this phonics
card game students try to form word sets and lay the sets down.
There are a few variations.